Pictures of the Day 320N

By adding base, an innocent aldehyde is turned into the evil, nucleophilic enolate. Thus, the carbonyl group can act as a nucleophile and electrophile in the same reaction! This is a great way to make carbon-carbon bonds! Note that sadly, once again, a movie has apparently ripped off this idea! Having the same actor play opposing characters, one innocent and nice (like a sweet smelling, unsuspecting aldehyde), the other evil and treacherous (lilke the reckless, reactive enolate nucleophile, willing to react with any unsuspecting carbonyl group!). The first letters of the names: Austin and Evil, even start with the same first letters as Aldehyde and Enolate!! These Hollywood types should learn to cover their tracks better than that!